


Survival of the Fittest

by acochran5



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angry Sugawara Koushi, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Apocalypse, Caring, Dark, Drowning, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Platonic Cuddling, Post-Zombie Apocalypse, Protective Sugawara Koushi, Starvation, Survival, Team Bonding, Team Mom Sugawara Koushi, Team as Family, Tragedy, Trust Issues, Zombie Apocalypse, lying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25724866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acochran5/pseuds/acochran5
Summary: Kageyama's trying to survive in the zombie apocalypse that has ravaged his world. He's been alone since the start, trying not to starve. A chance encounter, however, flips his world upside-down, and suddenly he's been accepted by a group of survivors. But can they be trusted? Suddenly, he's thrust into a new game of survival, one he doesn't understand. Will he make it?
Relationships: Azumane Asahi & Sawamura Daichi & Sugawara Koushi, Hinata Shouyou & Kageyama Tobio, Hinata Shouyou & Sugawara Koushi, Kageyama Tobio & Karasuno Volleyball Club, Kageyama Tobio & Sawamura Daichi, Kageyama Tobio & Sugawara Koushi, Kageyama Tobio & Tsukishima Kei, Nishinoya Yuu & Tanaka Ryuunosuke, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Sawamura Daichi & Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

The store was rather empty, picked over, with few things remaining. The only things there were scraps on the floor, or food that must've expired months ago.

Still, Kageyama ate it. He hadn't eaten in three days, and he needed it to survive. His stomach was gnawing at itself. He hadn't seen a mirror in a while, however, the last time he'd seen himself, his cheeks were much too hollow, and he could see each one of his ribs.

If anything he'd only gotten worse since then.

Kageyama picked up a box of mostly eaten cookies with only a couple half cookies, and crumbs at the bottom. He ate them all, pouring every last crumb into his mouth. The cookies were stale, and hard, but Kageyama didn't have much of a choice.

He had to eat something after all.

Just then, Kageyama heard the door open. It was a little creak. The bell had been removed a while ago because the sound would attract them too much. The zombies.

Kageyama froze, scampering to one of the hidden corners of the convenience store. It might've been a zombie, and unlike some people who'd congregated in groups, Kageyama had been alone this entire time, and he didn't usually find things worth keeping. And even when he did, they were stolen.

When this first started he'd tried to be part of a group, but they had only stolen everything he had and ran. He did find some new clothes, but they were too small, and were short, though now he was skinny enough to fit into them alright. And they were already ripped so it was even more comfortable.

Kageyama crouched and slowly peered over one of the shelves to look toward the entrance. It looked like a guy, he was wandering around the store, doing something. Kageyama wasn't sure if he was a zombie or not, but he figured it'd be better to be safe than sorry.

Kageyama crawled on his hands and knees towards the entrance, hiding behind shelves and keeping low to the ground, as quiet as possible.

Kageyama looked behind one of the shelves, his hand moving forward to crawl a little more. But his hand hit a can and it rolled across the floor, hitting the wall with a bang.

Kageyama froze, his hand mid air. The footsteps he'd heard in the store, stopped with the noise.

He felt his heart clench, and his breath caught in his throat. The maybe-zombie had just heard him. Kageyama just sat there, unable to move, unable to do anything.

Footsteps started going towards the noise, and if the zombie reached the noise and he didn't move, the thing was going to see him, and he didn't have the energy to run away. He had to get out of here before the thing saw him.

It was too late, the maybe-zombie rounded the corner and then turned to look him straight in the eye.

Kageyama observed, that this didn't look like a zombie, he looked very human. That didn't mean it was better though. He'd seen people eaten on the streets, not turned and wandering around like a mindless beings; eaten.

A human had killed them, and then left their body to rot and for zombies to eat. More humans meant more competition, and so humans killed their competitors. The ones in groups stayed together and killed any other single humans or more groups they found.

Kageyama slowly backed away from the human in front of him. He had gray hair, hanging at his neck, and brown eyes. His clothes actually fit, and he didn't look starved. Which meant he was probably in a group, they probably had a system, and the others were probably nearby.

Never had he killed someone either, he didn't really want to start now, he didn't even know if he would be able to. "Hey there," the guy said. He seemed to be about Kageyama's age, a couple years older perhaps, but around there. "This store is pretty picked over, huh? You come here looking for food?"

Kageyama stiffly nodded.

The boy came over towards him, and Kageyama was too scared to move. He couldn't keep his eyes off the knife glinting in his belt, and the bat in his hands. A survivor was almost as scary as a zombie, because both represented the same thing.

Death.

"My name's Sugawara, I'm seventeen. What about you?"

"Kageyama, fourteen."

He begged his body to run but it wouldn't move.

Sugawara was soon at his side, crouching so they were eye level. "Come here," he said. Kageyama didn't move. "I'm not going to hurt you, if I was I would have already, so just come here."

Kageyama scooted a little closer, careful to keep him at arms length. He watched Sugawara with hyper focus, and almost started running when Sugawara took his knife out. But all he did was flip it around and hold the handle out to Kageyama. "Here, take this."

"It's not very smart to give someone a weapon." Kageyama didn't know why he said that. He knew himself, and he was too much of a coward to ever attack first.

Sugawara only smiled, but it was rather eerie in Kageyama's opinion. "You wouldn't get very far Kageyama-chan."

He wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just stayed silent. "Why don't you follow me Kageyama-chan, you look like you could use some help."

"I don need help." Kageyama mumbled unhappily.

Sugawara didn't answer and only held out his hand to help Kageyama up once he himself had stood. He reluctantly grabbed the offered hand and allowed himself to pulled up. "Wow, you certainly are tall for someone so young." Kageyama shrugged.

"I guess so."

"I'm part of a group, which you've probably noticed, and maybe you'd like to meet them."

Kageyama knew this situation was dangerous, but he couldn't say no and risk angering Sugawara so he just nodded along. "It's probably a little scary for you, huh? But I promise they're nice for the most part, and you seem like you would be a good addition. You're fourteen and surviving on your own. Have you been alone this entire time?"

Kageyama nodded.

"That must've been hard for you." Sugawara said. "Most kids teamed up with their friends and parents. Our group is a very ragtag group, however. Some of us were friends before, but there's a couple kids your age too that we found."

"My parents were some of the first turned, so they left me. And I never had any friends." Kageyama explained, feeling like he had to give an explanation.

"Call me Suga, and I guess I'm officially your first friend."

"Okay. You can call me Kageyama."

Sugawara laughed quietly, "I figured that much Kageyama-chan."

Kageyama felt red creeping up his neck, because he wasn't exactly sure what was so funny, but it felt like Suga was laughing at him. "Come on, just a little further."

Kageyama nodded and kept following briskly behind Sugawara, to an abandoned building. It looked like a house, but parts of it were falling apart, so it was hard to tell.

Sugawara went up to the front door and opened it. The house was dark, there was never any electricity anywhere, the zombies destroyed it, so foods that needed refrigeration almost all went bad quickly. And almost everyone was always dirty because there was no hot water, and taking a bath in freezing cold water really sucked.

"I'm back~." Sugawara lilted, shutting the door with a soft click.

There was some movement in the back of the building and then a boy with ginger hair came out of the back and ran at Suga, tackling him. Sugawara barely steadied himself in time, wrapping his arms around the boy, "Did you find food?" he asked eagerly.

"No, I found you a new playmate though."

The ginger huffed, his eyes sliding over to Kageyama, then back to Suga and he rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Daichi-san found some anyway."

"So Asahi was here watching you?"

"No, he went out too."

Kageyama moved over a little to give Suga space as his expression instantly turned into something less than friendly. "So you all were alone."

"Noya and Tanaka were here."

"So you were basically left without any supervision. I swear I'm going to kill them both." Sugawara gritted his teeth and stormed off to the back where he disappeared around a corner.

Kageyama watched him go, however his attention was then instantly attracted back to the ginger as he said, "Wow, you're pretty tall, you must be around Suga-san's age."

"Actually I'm fourteen." Kageyama mumbled, feeling nervous around this new person he didn't know. Kageyama still didn't trust survivors. Just because Suga was nice to him, didn't mean everyone was going to be."

"Wow, so I'm actually older than you. I'm fifteen, and my name's Hinata!"

"Kageyama… and could you not be so loud." He didn't mean to have a bite in his tone, but there was one and Hinata pulled back a little.

"Geez, don't be so rude. I'm just excited to see another person!"

Kageyama rolled his eyes and didn't say anything in return.

"Jerk." Hinata grumbled and crossed his arms. They both stayed silent for a little while until Hinata said, "So, you want some food?"

"I'm not allowed to eat until everyone else has."

"Why's that?" Hinata asked.

"Well… because I'm not really part of the group? At least, not yet."

"Kageyama-kun, I don't know what you're talking about, but you sound kind of stupid."

Kageyama crossed his arms. This person was his age, and he was telling Kageyama it was okay to eat, but what if the others didn't think so? "I'll just wait."

"Why?"

Kageyama refused to open his mouth and just fell silent.

"Okay, uh, then why don't we go meet everyone else!"

Hinata grabbed his hand and led him off to a the back of the building where they heard hushed discussion.

When they got there Kageyama saw the room divided in two. Suga on one end, with two others, and on the other end was everyone else. They were sitting huddled in a group, talking semi-quietly.

They went over to the group full of strangers.

Kageyama and Hinata sat down with them, and two of them moved to make room. "Hey guys." Hinata said. "This is Kageyama, he's fourteen, Sugawara picked him up while out on a food run. Kageyama this is, Tsukishima, fifteen. Yamaguchi, fifteen. Nishinoya, seventeen. Tanaka, sixteen, Ennoshita, sixteen. Kinoshita, sixteen. And Narita, seventeen."

"We can introduce ourselves, you know." Tsukishima said, rolling his eyes.

"Whatever, I just thought it'd be quicker this way."

"Hi…" Kageyama said nervously, clutching the bottom of his shirt. "Nice to meet you."

They all greeted him with different variations of hi. Some of them sounding glad to have him here, and some of them sounding annoyed. Kageyama knew that those were the people who didn't want him here. Hopefully most of them were accepting, or they might kill him.

Soon, the three on the other side of the room were done talking and came over to their side of the room.. "Alright you two, say hi to Kageyama-chan, our youngest member." Suga said, sitting down on the other side of him. "Kageyama-chan, this is Daichi and Asahi."

"Hi," Kageyama glanced from his toes to their faces.

Daichi and Asahi both looked nice, however. And they were obviously the oldest along with Sugawara. "Hello, Kageyama-kun." Daichi said, smiling kindly at him. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen." He answered. "But I'm turning fifteen this year." He quickly defended.

"Okay then," Daichi chuckled. "Would you like some food?"

"I can have some?"

"Sure, it's pretty much dinner time anyway. And no offense, but you look like you're starving."

Kageyama was starving. He looked around at all the others and knew they didn't look like him. Their cheeks weren't hollow and he was willing to bet they couldn't see their ribs and count them. And while they were a bit dirty, their clothes fit, and they were warm looking.

Kageyama wasn't sure if he would've survived the winter, with all the snow and cold temperatures. He might've frozen to death, had they not found him.

"I am a little bit hungry."

"I can tell, you poor thing," Sugawara cupped his face. "Don't worry, we will take care of you from now on, alright?"

"Um… okay." Kageyama said, blushing a bit. When was the last time someone had touched him? When was the last time someone had said something so nice to him? When was the last time anyone had said anything to him at all?

Too long. Much too long, because he realized he couldn't remember. Sugawara stood up, "Alright, we'll have some soup tonight, Daichi, why don't you come help me please."

"Hey, why do I always gotta watch the kids." Asahi said, but not like he was complaining, more like he was just scared.

Sugawara shrugged unsympathetically, and then walked off to go make food with Daichi.

Suddenly, Kageyama was left alone with complete strangers, and no idea of how to talk to them.

And he had to admit, he was scared. He wasn't sure if he could trust anyone yet, even Suga.

He didn't know how things worked here, in this place it was survival of the fittest too. He could see it in their eyes, even if they didn't think he could.

And he would survive, he didn't come this far just to die.

"So," Hinata looked over at him, "Kageyama-kun, wanna play a little game?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: mentions of self-harm, dark Hinata, drowning, overall dark themes, angry Suga

"What kind of game?" Kageyama asked cautiously.

"Let's play would you rather, Kageyama-kun. We always play games while Suga-san and Daichi-san cook dinner."

"And it always ends in a fight." Asahi grumbled, slouching down as if resigning himself to his fate.

"How do you play?" Kageyama had never really played any games before, and the games he had were with his parents. Those games usually had boards and pieces though. Maybe this one did too.

"Well, I'll go first. You'll figure it out Kageyama-kun. Okay, so Yamaguchi-kun, would you rather drown or burn alive?"

Kageyama instantly concluded that this game was a very dark one. As Yamaguchi thought this one over, Hinata turned back to him, and if Kageyama didn't know better, he'd say that smile was sinister. "Oh, and Kageyama-kun, before we get too far, it's probably best that you know, whichever you say you would rather do, you have to do."

Kageyama didn't like the sound of that, or the way they were all looking at him.

Suddenly Yamaguchi piped up, "Probably drown."

"Okay, there's a river outback, want to come Kageyama-kun." Hinata smiled cheerily, but Kageyama felt so cold and frozen he didn't know if he could even move.

"I'll just… I'll just wait here." Kageyama choked out.

"You better not go too far this time, Hinata-kun." Asahi warned.

"Don't worry, I won't. And see you later Kageyama-kun!"

He and several others got up and walked out the backdoor. Kageyama was left with Asahi, Nishinoya, Ennoshita, and Tsukishima. Everyone else had left to go drown Yamaguchi, or at least that was what he assumed. "Um, will he be okay?" Kageyama asked, feeling his stomach twist and fold in on itself. He didn't know if that was from hunger or from this very sick, twisted game.

He already knew it wasn't safe here, but this game just confirmed it. "He'll be fine, don't worry Kageyama-kun."

Kageyama didn't understand. Even with what had just happened, Asahi still didn't look evil to him. Even though he should. His eyes should be cruel, and looking to hurt him.

Kageyama didn't understand how to survive in this world at all. He was at a complete loss for what to do. He did know that groups took care of each other, but he also knew that in a group, every single member was dispensable if absolutely necessary.

Groups weren't like family. Everyone had to play a role or pay the price for not serving a purpose. Groups were solely created for survival, not to play nice.

This group seemed to like to pretend they were happy together, however. But it was quickly becoming apparent this wasn't the case. He didn't understand, as Hinata had seemed so nice, and so had Suga. Was it all just an act to get him to trust them before they killed him and ate him?

At this point, anything was possible. None of them looked hungry, but if this encounter had taught him anything, it was that looks could be deceiving.

* * *

They all sat in silence for what seemed like hours until everyone returned, carrying a dripping wet Yamaguchi, who was coughing, spluttering, looking like he was barely able to breathe.

"Alright, your turn Yamaguchi-kun." Hinata grinned widely as they all plopped back on the floor, the house groaning in protest. Kageyama hoped they didn't do that too often, or this house would collapse.

Once Yamaguchi had regained his ability to breathe properly, he turned to Kageyama, his eyes sharper than when Kageyama had first met him.

Hinata and Yamaguchi had instantly stood out to him as the nicest people of the group, but he was starting to think he'd been wrong. "Kageyama-kun, would you rather hurt yourself, or someone else in this room?"

Kageyama's tongue felt too big, and all he wanted to do was crawl into a hole and die. He was scared, he didn't want to do this, but the pressure weighed down on him, begging him to choose. "I… I don't want to play." Kageyama choked out after a long pause. Instantly, he thought that was the wrong choice. After all, why did he get a say in what they played? His heart was pounding erratically inside his chest, and beads of sweat dripped down his forehead though it was anything but hot in the house.

"Alright, Yamayama-kun, you don't have to play." Hinata said. "We just thought it'd be fun to show you what we did to pass the time."

"The way you guys pass time might be a little intense for most people." Asahi said.

"Hey, it is not. Yamaguchi-kun started having fun after a couple times, and I invented the entire thing just so we could have fun. It isn't as if everyone always plays either, and this isn't the only game we have! We have less intense games! I'm sorry Yamayama-kun, you probably think we're crazy."

Kageyama didn't voice it aloud, but he did think they were crazy. Hinata was crazy for creating this game, and he hopped around in his conversation too much for Kageyama's liking.

"Let's do something less intense, like 'mother, may I'. Asahi can be the mother."

"You want me?" Asahi asked. "You always want Suga though."

"Suga-san is busy." Hinata said, a silent 'duh' on the end of his sentence.

"Of course." Asahi sighed and walked over to the other side of the room.

"Okay, you've probably never played this one either. So I'll start."

"Why do you always get to start, you midget?" Tsukishima asked distastefully.

"Because I always volunteer before anyone else. And you're the only one who ever has a problem with it, Saltyshima."

The air of tension from before was gone, but Kageyama still felt uneasy. Almost more so now. He knew what this group was capable of, to an extent, and knew what they would do to their own members for fun. Even more concerning, was that these members were okay with that.

Kageyama wouldn't have been okay with being drowned out back in the freezing cold river, and he knew that anyone who thought otherwise was insane. Yamaguchi had to be insane, Hinata too. And Kageyama knew they didn't start out that way. They couldn't have been like that before the apocalypse started.

So that left the question of what happened.

"Mother, may I take two steps forward."

"Sure." Asahi said and Hinata took two steps forward.

They kept playing this way until Suga and Daichi came back with dinner. "Now, you didn't cause too much trouble, right?" Suga asked, setting the food on the floor.

"I'm pretty sure Hinata-kun freaked out your new recruit, Suga."

Sugawara crossed his arms, frowning down at Hinata, "Hinata-chan, what did you do?"

"Just played a game." Hinata said innocently, but the guilt in his eyes betrayed him.

"His would you rather game, to be exact."

"Ugh, and you let him do that? You know I don't like that game. Last time they nearly burned the base down with that stupid game."

"Well…" Asahi trailed off. "It's hard to say no to them…"

"If Daichi or I had been here we would've! You need to stand up for yourself more. And Hinata-chan, stop playing that game. You probably scared Kageyama-chan to death!"

"I didn't mean to." Hinata mumbled.

"What did you do?"

"Drowned Yamaguchi-kun."

Kageyama scooted backwards, because Sugawara looked livid, and Hinata shrunk back from him as far as he could.

In an instant, Hinata's wrist was clenched in Suga's fist as he pulled the younger boy over to the opposite end of the room. "Sit here," he hissed, "and don't you dare make too much noise with all your crying."

Sugawara dropped Hinata's wrist that fell limply into the boy's lap.

"This happens all the time. Hinata knows he's not allowed to play that game, but he does it anyway." Yamaguchi whispered to Kageyama.

"Why?"

Yamaguchi shrugged as Tsukishima answered with a smirk, "Because he's a dumbass." He was loud enough for Hinata to hear.

"Better than being a jackass!" Hinata snarled but didn't move from his huddled position on the floor, facing the wall.

Sugawara turned and glared at Hinata, "I told you to be quiet." He said.

After that, Sugawara dished out bowls of the soup.

It smelled _so_ good. But Kageyama sat and waited patiently for his bowl. Sugawara finally handed Kageyama his bowl before he kept dishing out a few more.

Kageyama's hands shook at first as he raised the bowl to his lips, sipping the warm broth, with some thin strips of vegetables or potatoes, or something.

All of it was soft and settled in his stomach, warming his insides. He, for once in a long time, felt full. It was only a few sips of soup, but he felt stuffed afterwards.

The rest of them had a little more than Kageyama, and when everyone was done, Sugawara scooped all the remaining soup into a bowl (which wasn't much) and brought it over to Hinata.

They talked in hushed whispers, so it was hard for Kageyama to make out whatever they were saying.

Ever curious, Kageyama scooted over closer to them so he could better hear. "That game you created, and the things you ask others, are dangerous." Sugawara said.

Hinata nodded, "I won't do it anymore."

"You've said that five times already. I'm worried that because you think it's okay to hurt the people in your group, the people you're supposed to take care of, you aren't fit to be here."

Hinata fell completely silent, not even whimpering as he had been the entire night. "Everyone here, needs to feel safe, including you. And you keep endangering yourself and others, why is that?"

"I just… want to have fun."

"Nearly drowing Yamaguchi, shouldn't be fun." Sugawara said slowly.

"I guess not."

"Hinata, I know where you came from, I'm the one who found you. I know you've killed survivors before. But we aren't just survivors, we're your group. We will take care of you, and you need to take care of us."

"I know, I—."

"Let me finish. I will forgive you this time," Suga handed over the bowl of soup, "however. If I ever catch you playing that game again I swear I will kill you myself."

Hinata stayed silent, but he didn't look anywhere near as surprised as Kageyama felt. And he didn't seem to think that was wrong, as Kageyama did. This was just another reminder that groups weren't family. They would kill you in cold blood if you didn't fit inside the mold they needed.

"Hinata-chan?"

Hinata snapped to attention and nodded quickly, downing the soup in one gulp. "I understand, Suga-san."

But Kageyama didn't really think he did. "Good," Sugawara said, ruffling Hinata's fluffy ginger hair. "You can come back now."

Hinata stood up and followed Sugawara to the other side, sitting beside Kageyama, where everyone was chatting quietly, and generally having a good time. Kageyama could see something darker though.

He'd never wanted to get involved with groups, the downsides were just as many as being alone. He'd quickly learned that with the short time he had been 'accepted' into a group. Each of them had an ulterior motive than simply wanting to help. He knew this group was no different no matter what they said.

This was something Kageyama had never experienced before, not in all his days living through hell. He didn't know how to survive through this, didn't know how to get by.

"So… you aren't going to play that game anymore?" Kageyama asked quietly.

"Of course I will." Hinata whispered back. "I just won't get caught."

And wasn't that the mentality of every single child who'd ever heard the word 'no'?

That mentality, applied to this situation, made for a very dangerous person.

Normally, Kageyama would stay away from people like that. Unfortunately, he realized that if he wanted to survive this twisted dynamic, he was going to have to get closer to Hinata, be his best friend.

Kageyama wasn't good at pretending, but he had always been good at surviving. So that was what he had to do now, rise above everyone else, and ally himself with the future leaders of this group, should some die.

In this kind of world, he couldn't afford to play nice. In this kind of world, it was survival of the fittest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comments and kudos are love!


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Kageyama woke up to the group leaders huddled around Yamaguchi, and Hinata sitting a little away from them, looking restless.

Hinata also looked tired, as if he hadn't slept at all the night before. He looked a little guilty as well.

"Well, Hinata-chan, it seems that your game last night made Yamaguchi-chan sick." Sugawara crossed his arms, frowning down at the orange haired boy.

Hinata glanced up at Suga and then back down at the floor "Give the kid a break, Suga. He didn't mean for this to happen." Daichi said.

"Well maybe he didn't mean it, but it happened."

"Suga-san, I already said sorry, what else do you want me to do?"

"I don't want you to do anything, you've already done quite enough. And just because you apologized doesn't mean I'm not angry anymore."

"I'm tired of all your stupid rules, and all your stupid manipulating! Don't think I'm stupid, I know what you're doing."

"Yet here you are." Daichi said before Sugawara could respond. "If it's so bad here, leave."

Hinata fell silent.

"You can't leave." Sugawara purred, "Because you know you wouldn't last with nothing." He smirked.

"I've survived before…"

"Before there was still supplies lying around. The people who are alone now? They won't last anymore. You won't last."

Hinata's bottom lip trembled and he let out a cry, a loud sob that threatened to wake everyone had Sugawara not slapped a hand over his mouth. "Hinata-chan, don't start being noisy. It's not nice to wake everyone when they're still sleeping. No need to cry. A few rules, for a group that takes care of you? Don't you realize you're one of the lucky ones? Anyone else would've killed you."

"So why not you." Hinata hissed, shoving Suga's hand off him.

"Because I care about you, but I also care about everyone else, and if you're actions keep causing harm to them then I can't very well keep you."

"Bastard." He snarled, more tears slipping down his cheeks.

Sugawara's eyes softened, but his overall expression screamed apathy. Kageyama wasn't sure what to believe. "We're really not. Follow the rules and we'll all be okay. Play that game again and you know what I'll do."

Hinata nodded solemnly, gritting his teeth against the tirade of emotion pushing at his insides.

"Good," Suga said, pulling Hinata into an embrace. Hinata's tears soaked some of Suga's shirt, and for the first time in a long time he hated this. Hated everything about this and struggled with it. Struggled with the rules, with the structure, with Suga's guilt trip.

It wasn't as if Hinata had made Yamaguchi go into the river, he'd chosen to do that. Technically this wasn't even his fault, right? But Sugawara always made him doubt these sorts of things.

Suga always managed to make him feel smaller than he was, and not necessarily in a good way.

It had been nice at first, though Hinata had been cautious, after a while he let his guard down. Because Suga would dote on him, like he was now doting on Kageyama. And Suga would give him warm food, and a nice place to sleep, and all the things he could've only dreamed of when the apocalypse first began.

But now he saw through the façade of hospitality.

What was really happening, was he was being trapped. Suga always had one of the leaders watching them, whether it was Daich, Asahi, or himself. Not just because they got into trouble (although they did) it was also to make sure no one left.

His reaction yesterday had been expected, they'd all been left unsupervised for hours. But Sugawara's words were specifically why he hadn't left yesterday.

Because deep down he knew he couldn't survive on his own. Because deep down he knew that he needed them. Because deep down he knew no one else was going to help him either.

Suga pulled back, wiping away Hinata's tears and snot with his hand, which Hinata might've found gross before the apocalypse, but now those things didn't bother him anymore. "Let's go down to the river, get you cleaned up, and then we can have some food, okay?"

"Okay." Because what else could he say? And now that Sugawara mentioned it, he was hungry.

Kageyama watched from his position on the floor as Sugawara and Hinata left, probably to wash hands or something.

It wasn't until after they left that he sat up, "Kageyama-kun, you're awake." Daichi said, warmth filling his voice that had been so empty with Hinata earlier.

"Yeah…" Kageyama said.

"I suppose you heard everything then?"

Kageyama didn't verbally answer Daichi this time and simply nodded.

"Don't worry Kageyama-kun, Hinata was just being a little dramatic." Daichi chuckled, "he's not much of a rule follower, and Suga has strict rules. Not a very good match, huh?"

"Suppose not." Kageyama murmured.

Kageyama doubted these words, and thought the problem most certainly ran deeper than that, but he didn't argue. A long time ago, Kageyama learned that was for the best.

* * *

"Are you still mad at me?" Hinata asked while they washed their hands in the river. Hinata knew Suga was probably trying to talk to him alone for whatever reason.

Which was why he wondered why Sugawara only hummed in response. Hinata wasn't sure if that was just a hum or an affirmative hum so he stayed crouched on the ground, waiting.

"I suppose I can forgive you." Suga said. "You are so cute, how could I stay mad." He smiled and pinched Hinata's cheek lightly. Hinata groaned and pulled away from Suga's affectionate hands.

Hinata really didn't like it here, but as far as places to stay during the apocalypse, Suga's was by far the best. Sugawara was also one of the only people not to try and kill him on sight, so he had to take what he could get.

"Suga-san?"

"Yes?"

Hinata didn't say anything and just tackled him in a hug. Sugawara never cared if he hugged him. Asahi got jumpy, and Daichi didn't really do hugs, but Suga liked them, and so did Hinata. And while he wasn't stupid, he didn't really get a say in who he hung around anymore, so he'd decided no matter what he'd make the best of it.

"Hinata-chan, what's this for? You aren't trying to bribe me back into your good graces, are you?"

"No… I just… want a hug."

"Well I can certainly give you that." Suga said, his cold palm running through Hinata's hair.

With that, he kind of forgot what he was mad about in the first place. Rules? He could live with that.

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have no idea where I'm going with this so if you have something in mind I will certainly take it into consideration. Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> So what do you guys think? Should I continue? Also, thanks for reading, hope you liked it, comments and kudos are love.


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